EVALUATION - Media language

We have been asked to analyse our trailer in terms of media language, I am going to write notes under the title of camera work, editing, mise en scene and sound.
Camera work:
These are notes I have made on the camera shots we have used in our trailer, I will go through the trailer, using bullet points, in chronological order and explain the choices we made and what effect the camera shots give.

• Our trailer shots with a CU of a bag on a kitchen table, a female puts an item into the bag in a rush, this already gives the impression that something in packing to go away somewhere or run away
• This cuts to a mid/CU over the shoulder shot of a female grabbing food items out of a cupboard, you can only see the back of the character, this adds enigma
• This then cuts to a mid shot looking at the character taking out food items from the right, it is also from a slightly high angle, the audience can now see her facial expression and therefore tell she is stressed, also the high angle suggests she is in some sort of trouble
• This then cuts back to the mid/CU over the shoulder shot, this is an example of a shot reverse shot
• There is then a change of setting, there is a long shot of the female character walking down a school corridor holding some books, she is walking towards the camera, at the end of the shot she drops her books
• Mid shot, high angle as the character picks up her books, a male arm comes into shot to help pick up the books – enigma as audience down not know who he is
• Mid shot over the shoulder of the female character, this shows the male characters face to the audience
• Caption – black screen
• There is then a high angle shot this shows the female character running in and out of room, this shows her confusion – she does not know where to go
• Mid shot, female character runs into shot – grabs passport then runs out again – know audience is clear she is running away
• Cuts to a long shot of female and male character having an ‘indoor picnic’
• Cuts to mid shot shows them laughing – this shows that at this point they are not taking themselves seriously – they are having fun
• Caption – black screen
• There is then two CU’s of the female character running up the stairs, only her legs are shown, this shows the panic of the character
• New setting in bedroom – CU as the characters grabs a top
• Mid shot – she puts the top into a bag – there are then other shots of her opening draws etc
• High angle shot – as voice over starts character stops moving – the voice over is like her remembering what he said to her – as the voice over is over a high angle shot it is almost like the male character is looking down on her and making her vulnerable
• Cuts to a mid shot of both characters on the sofa – female turns to male and says always – is a carry on from the voice over
• Shot of sofa from the right side – show happy couple – audience will be able to relate
• There is then an establishing shot of the bedroom to show the audience that the trailer is back there – female characters runs past the camera and out of the room
• Caption –black screen
• High angle CU of a man (audience will think it is the male character that was shown) getting a kitchen knife slowly out of a draw – he holds it for a second before taking it out of the shot
• Long shot of female character running down the stairs and into the kitchen – she puts bag down on the table- again the pace se is moving shows she is panicking
• Mid shot slightly high angle of her as she opens a draw and reaches for a pen knife – holds it for a second before moving it out of shot (like what the male character did)
• Mid shot – shows character running round the table and grabbing the bag – there is the sound of a door knock
• Mid shot of door
• Cuts back to a closer mid shot of character from the right side – phone ring – show her reaction
• CU of mobile phone
• Back to original mid shot – character at the left side of the screen – looking from door to phone – puts her hand over her mouth then sinks to the floor
• RUNAWAY 2011 appears on a black screen
Editing:
The editing is very fast pace, this shows the panic of the female character as she is running round the house, we have cut together a varied number of shots from different angles – at some points it almost looks as if someone is watch the characters this will add to the enigma of the film. Between each shot we have a fade to black, however between the present shots and the flashback sequences we have put in a fade to white – this makes the transition look like a flash and tells the audience that they are jumping around in time. When editing we changed the colour contrast of the flash back shots, this makes them look almost as if they came from a dream as they are very pale. We used three captions in the trailer each caption is on a black screen and the colour of the words are white with a red glow – the red tells the audience that the characters are in danger and that there could be bloodshed in the film. The content of the captions also give away a lot about the narrative of the film. The added working title logo at the beginning makes the trailer look more professional. The last black screen has the title of the film on it, we wanted to use a different font for this, we choose one that was slanted so the text looked as if it was ‘running away’ as this font is black but it has a white glow this makes the text stand out. The release date (2011) is in the same font as the captions. We were careful with the editing so we could make it match up with the soundtrack therefore as the soundtrack builds up so does the intensity of the trailer.
Mise en scene:
We used everyday familiar settings for our film, a family home and a school; we did this because we wanted the audience to relate to the setting. Also we found in horror films they are a lot scarier when you can imagine it happening to you, or when something bad happens in a place that you should feel safe in. The costumes we chose help the audience make decisions about the characters, the female character wears bright colours and is at one point wearing white – this tells the audience that she is a happy innocent person. The male character however always wears dark clothing this suggests to the audience that maybe he cannot be trusted. The main props we used where the bag, the books which were dropped and the two knifes. The books where used as a way of introducing the characters, the bag shows that the female character is running away (shows narrative) and the use of the knifes was a good way of showing the genre.
Sound:
We have used one soundtrack throughout the trailer; the soundtrack adds tension and puts the audience on edge. We made sure that the sound track matched the shots so for example when the male character gets the knife out of the draw the soundtrack is at its loudest. We decided to use a voice over as we thought it was a good way to link the flash back sequences with the present shots. Having it over the top of a high angle shot was very effective. We used two sound effects in the trailer, the door knock and the phone ring; we repeated the door knock a number of times and made it faster to make it sound more urgent. The phone ring and the door knock over lap each other this makes the character feel like she cannot escape, even after the shot ends and the soundtrack fades the phone ring is still present as the title of the film appears.

Rach.